I have long held that the elaborate set of esoteric correspondences for the tarot developed by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn has no place in divination with the Tarot de Marseille apart from classical suit-and-number theory (elemental and numerological associations that in their present form date back, respectively, to the Greek philosophers Empedocles … Continue reading The “Functional” Tarot de Marseille
Tarot Opinion
Intuition or Guided Suggestion?
A recent Facebook post on the Tarot History page by tarot author and deck creator Robert Place about the earliest known forms of divination got me thinking about the nature of intuition (specifically as championed by those cartomancers who only use free-association from the card images, downplaying or dismissing the value of knowledge-based analysis). In … Continue reading Intuition or Guided Suggestion?
Virtue Is As Virtue Does
. . . or something like that. The uncertainty over which tarot trump card represents which of the four cardinal and three "theological" virtues is a continuing source of on-line debate. As a non-religious person I don't bother much (or at all) with the Christian virtues in a tarot reading, but I am intrigued by … Continue reading Virtue Is As Virtue Does
An Alternate Approach to On-line Reading
As I've said many times before, I'm suspicious of any card-reading method that doesn't involve a querent physically handling the deck. Consequently, I shy away from on-line reading except under very limited circumstances. One of my "work-arounds" is to request that remote clients shuffle and draw from their own deck of cards, then tell me … Continue reading An Alternate Approach to On-line Reading
Odd Couples
I'm still plowing my way through Alejandro Jodorowsky's The Way of Tarot and have reached the section where he proposes a few obvious (and more than a few off-beat) "duets" between the cards of the tarot. Anyone with a shred of card sense can clearly see the logical ties between the Emperor and Empress, the … Continue reading Odd Couples
“Head Space”
The question is sometimes asked "What is the proper frame-of-mind in which to approach a tarot reading?" Should one meditate, pray, "clear" or otherwise center in the moment? Is it OK to be a little bit "high?" Must one be thoroughly rested and mentally fresh? Does it help to use candles, incense, crystals or other … Continue reading “Head Space”
A Question of Style
During my long career as a technical and legal writer, my personal goal was to explain complex matters in comprehensive but still entirely lucid language, since to do otherwise could have led to serious human error and/or regulatory exposure for my company. These objectives would seem to be at odds, since completeness and clarity may … Continue reading A Question of Style
The Party of the Third Part
It's time to visit the subject of "third party readings" once again. An eternal topic of discussion on the tarot forums is whether it's ethical to perform readings about someone who isn't present or who hasn't consented to examination of their affairs. There is a broad span of professional opinion on this, ranging from "it's … Continue reading The Party of the Third Part
“I Yam What I Yam . . .”
". . . and dat's all what I yam!" (In the immortal words of Popeye the Sailor Man.) I came across a neat bit of wisdom on Andy Boroveshengra's blog Fortuna's Picturebook that I'm going to borrow for the theme of this post: "Cards are never something else before they are themselves." https://abcartomancy.blogspot.com/2019/07/shall-i-compare-thee.html Andy was … Continue reading “I Yam What I Yam . . .”
Archetypes, Alpha-Types and Stereotypes
Warning: I'm going to be politically obtuse here and talk about gender, as in demographics, because at the purely biological level (barring surgical intervention), it is what it is. For the record, I'm an Old White Male (but not quite the "Bernie Sanders of the Tarot" yet), married to the same woman for 40 years … Continue reading Archetypes, Alpha-Types and Stereotypes
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 